Beach shortcut takes a toll on Surf City residents

By Bill Walsh StarNews Correspondent

Thursday

Jul 19, 2018 at 2:00 PMJul 19, 2018 at 4:54 PM

Frustrated neighbors look to put brakes on visitor traffic using their private road

PENDER COUNTY -- On Memorial Day weekend and the weekend before the Fourth of July, Jeff Conerly and his neighbors manned a toll booth, charging non-residents a $5 fee to use the private road that runs through their community that also happens to be a shortcut to the Surf City swing bridge.

While the move left some drivers frustrated and angry, Conerly said the attention the toll effort brought to the neighborhood's woes has been priceless.

“We had about 100 cars turn around that refused to pay, we had nine that ran the blockade, including one that hit me. We had the police out here a number of times. But nobody got shot, nobody got injured. It was a big success," Conerly said, adding that the Memorial Day toll booth generated nearly $800. "The main thing was it got some visibility for the problem, and we got some motivation out of our local officials."

Conerly and his 225 neighbors in the two developments just outside Surf City -- Cedar Landing II and Creek Estates -- are between a rock and a hard place.

The private, partially paved Cedar Avenue that serves as the main road through the developments has been discovered by many Pender residents and visitors for the time savings it offers for getting to the beach from the south on N.C. 210. During a recent holiday week, including two weekends, Conerly said more than 8,200 cars took advantage of the shortcut -- turning the residential street into a virtual highway. That's about the same number of vehicles that travel on N.C. 210 just north of U.S. 17 in Hampstead everyday, according to the most recent traffic count.

“The road was never designed and built for this kind of traffic,” Conerly said.

Pushing for state ownership

Drivers taking advantage of the private road also gain more than simply avoiding summer traffic jams. Since the road is private, there are no police patrols, meaning drivers can run stop signs and exceed speed limits with impunity. And any accident on the road might result in a negligence-citing civil lawsuit against the homeowners who hold the road’s deed.

Getting the N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) to accept ownership of the road, Conerly said, could help take care of both issues. In fact, he added, if a nearby 3,200-home development successfully makes its way through the approval process, the situation on Cedar Avenue will almost certainly worsen.

In addition to maintenance and traffic management that state ownership of Cedar Avenue would allow, Conerly said the move would allow the communities’ Road Maintenance Organization (RMO) to spend what money it collects in dues on better maintenance of the secondary roads that serve Cedar Landing II and Creek Estate residents. Those roads are currently starved for funding by the maintenance requirements of the heavily traveled main road.

Fiscal, political roadblocks

These days, developers are generally required to build roads that meet state standards and which are then transferred to state ownership when the development is complete. That was not the case 30 or so years ago when Cedar Landing II and Creek Estates were built. The state will accept Cedar Lane into its system if it is brought up to state standards, but that, Conerly estimates, will cost about $1.3 million -- money the RMO does not have. At present, Conerly said, only about 60 percent of residents of the two neighborhoods support the RMO with their dues of $150 a year.

Conerly and the RMO have lobbied the DOT for relief without success. They also have convinced both the Pender County Commissioners and the Surf City Town Council to pass non-binding resolutions in support of a state takeover of an important road -- particularly for evacuation purposes), but that's about as much traction as that effort has gotten.

“Almost without exception, everybody will listen to the story, look at the traffic situation, recognize the problem, but are unable to offer help,” Conerly said.

Pender County Commissioner David Williams, whose District 1 includes Surf City, said the county is sympathetic and has offered political support -- even while its hands are tied by lack of any jurisdiction over roads. Williams did point out that setting up a toll booth on the private road does not conflict with any county ordinances.

Conerly is currently gathering estimates for up to three barriers for the road that will essentially turn Cedar Landing II and Creek Estates into gated communities. Whether that will pass legal muster remains to be seen, he said. Attorneys have told him that, since the road has been open to the public for at least seven years, the owners cannot now close it to the public. The biggest threat to gating, he said, will likely come from community members opposed to the barriers -- and to state ownership of the road in general -- not from the general public.

Contact the Metro desk at 910-343-2384 or Breakingnews@StarNewsOnline.com.